Here are my notes with a few new ideas incorporated. Hopefully someone finds these helpful: *TRAVEL PREP* Write out scenery descriptions ahead of time. - Imagery and flowery language - Personification and zoomorphism - Scale contrast Break up scenery descriptions with narratively relevant encounters that escalate in intensity. - Skill checks (with stakes) - Roleplay among party members and with NPCs - Combat Use resource management to make travel challenging and fun. - Time - Supplies - Spells and abilities *EXPLORATION PREP* Create information deficit to pique interest. - Sight - Hearing - Smell Use resource management to make exploration challenging and fun. - Time - Supplies - Carrying capacity - Spells and abilities - Hit points

@MonarchsFactory

Жыл бұрын

Above and beyond, this is great

"isn't communication wonderful when you actually do it" why do you attack me this way Dael

@MonarchsFactory

3 жыл бұрын

Don't worry, I'm attacking myself too

@Silas_MN

3 жыл бұрын

I noticed a game apparently called "Articulate!" on the shelf during this part, which I found very funny

me, the DM: Following the lazy bends of the river you glance a hawk gliding in the warm updrafts My players: We shoot the hawk

@ettinakitten5047

3 жыл бұрын

OK, make an attack roll with disadvantage, because it's really far away.

@ottovonbaden6353

3 жыл бұрын

Do. Not. Shoot. Da Birds! Do you want bright eyed mariners with cursed tales? Because that's how you get bright eyed mariners with cursed tales.

@kid14346

3 жыл бұрын

And once you shoot it down you have enemies in the area notice the dead bird plummeting out of the sky.

@Silas_MN

3 жыл бұрын

I had a character that had previously been a woodlands hermit hunt down and kill the rooster that crowed in the "beginning of the day" description. Turns out that pissed off the druid that kept it as a pet

@spudsbuchlaw

Жыл бұрын

Mei Ling would like to have a word with you

My players ask me a question about my world.. Me: "Ah yes of course I have that info right here. *checks notes* .............What are these notes ...what do they mean?"

@MonarchsFactory

3 жыл бұрын

I made the most ridiculous noise when I laughed at this

@WeShallLoveOn

3 жыл бұрын

@@MonarchsFactory Lmao all in a days work.

@aenorist2431

3 жыл бұрын

*Sad note-less GM noises* Its getting ridiculous though. 5 Months quite intensive weekly play in your head makes you a dumb boy, let me tell you.

@beemoney19

3 жыл бұрын

Me: "Who wrote this?" My brain: "Uh, you did."

@pufflemaster348

3 жыл бұрын

I just pretend to check my notes, then make whatever I need up on the spot.

did i just tear up by the thought of how gorgeous a moment it'd be to hear a walking song in a dnd sesh? maybe so

"What are these notes? What do these notes mean?" the eternal struggle

@custardnight1365

3 жыл бұрын

Too true... Too true.

@scienceguy8888

3 жыл бұрын

Who even takes notes? :P

@atrumangelus9733

3 жыл бұрын

The struggle is real. Both my session notes before DMing a session (if my players don't get distracted), and my campaign diary "notes" (more like scratches) after a session.

"Packs laden with loot, are often low on supplies" -Narrator in Darkest Dungeon (missspelled darkest)

@c.a.mcdivitt9722

3 жыл бұрын

I read that as "Dael-ist Dungeon"...

@wanderinghistorian

3 жыл бұрын

"Success so clearly in view. Or is it merely a trick of the light?"

@raz8752

3 жыл бұрын

"A spark without kindling is a goal without hope."

@TheMightyMime

3 жыл бұрын

"Finding the stuff is only the first test - now it must be carried home"

@Herosoyyo2

3 жыл бұрын

"If only treasure could staunch the flow of otherworldly corruption..."

scarf confidence

@sabeda1647

3 жыл бұрын

Scarfidence

@ottovonbaden6353

3 жыл бұрын

Scarf: Minimum CHA score 13, grants advantage on CHA based ability checks and saving throws. Disadvantage on Stealth checks.

@sabeda1647

3 жыл бұрын

@@ottovonbaden6353 Advantage on neck warmth checks

@jelte3754

3 жыл бұрын

Choice Scarf: your Speed is boosted by one stage but you can only use one move while on the field!

@CleverPsuedonym1

3 жыл бұрын

@@sabeda1647 resistance to harmful effects of extreme cold weather.

The greatest trick that Travel ever pulled, was convincing the world it didnt exist.

@theKurtAnderson

3 жыл бұрын

Massively underrated comment 😆

Re: scene setting descriptions - one of the best pieces of writing advice I ever got, which I have been able to apply constantly to my GMing and my job as a communications consultant, is that the first thing you need to do is *populate the scene.* Before you get into a page and a half of flowery descriptions about all the inanimate objects in the room, put the characters who are there in first. Human people don't relate to inanimate objects (unless we can anthropomorphize them like teddy bears and Roombas). Human people relate to living things, especially other human people. Start your scene description with the people who are there and what they are doing, and use that as a context for everything else of import around them. That keeps your story rolling and keeps the audience's attention. For example, if the party walks into a den of thieves, don't start by describing the scale in feet and the location of the bar. Start by describing the one table in the middle of the room around which a group of scruffy-looking men and women sit hunched over hands of playing cards. They pause the latest round of betting to stare in the party's direction before one player extinguishes her cigarette in a puff of acrid smoke, and reaches into her vest to produce a finely engraved golden revolver-which she pushes across the table into the betting pool piled up in the center of the table. But even as play resumes and the party makes their way inside, it's clear they are all keeping one eye on group. From there you can radiate your physical description of the space outwards from this table to highlight other important things about the space-the dim wrought iron oil chandeliers overhead, the dilapidated piano in the corner, the solitary chap in the back nursing a black eye and a whiskey, the wizened bartender sliding a mason jar of moonshine across the counter to some other NPC of note. But by starting with that little vignette in the center of the room, you've established the mood and tone, some characters, the smell of cigarette smoke, and give a point of reference for the players' imaginations to latch onto.

@TaylorHam

3 жыл бұрын

This is brilliant! Really good insight with human behavior I will for sure use this!

@chocolatebunnies6376

3 жыл бұрын

DM: [...] a puff of acrid smoke, and reaches into h The Rogue: I stab!

@carsonm7292

3 жыл бұрын

@@chocolatebunnies6376 To be sure this would end poorly for the rogue

@chocolatebunnies6376

3 жыл бұрын

@@carsonm7292 Certainly

@Frostrazor

3 жыл бұрын

Hey great point!!! I do this with my narrations already - but subconsciously probably due to me feeling the way you just espoused. Now I'll be more cognizant of it for sure; but last night's game I ran had an almost identical bit of narration and I began with describing the occupants at the two closest tables and went from there.

I really like having 'campfire encounters' where the party is sitting around a campfire and I ask each of them a question about their characters. Usually there is some roleplay there as the other characters hear those answers.

@theKurtAnderson

3 жыл бұрын

Colville has a great one-sentence prompt for people on watch together or around the fireplace: “so, what do you guys talk about?” Works like a charm :)

@Frostrazor

3 жыл бұрын

this is handled very well I think with the Kingmaker video game - with NPCs making random comments during the campfire resting bit. Taking your idea one step further - make an occasional random encounter during the campfire night and/or travel/explore and ask a random player what it was all about. Allow players to feel like they're contributing to the story. For instance in my Middle-Earth RPG I run, during last night's travel, the random PC was the Hobbit scholar "Halfwise". The random event (planned previously) was a malfunction of some sort with something the character wears or carries. So I told him at some point after you stop to rest at midday for food, what is it that goes wrong? The player describes how he leaned too close to a low thorny bush and it snagged his cloak as he pulled away it ripped open the back of the of his shirt exposing his shoulder. This created dialogue and allowed their hunter to use his fishing twine and fishing hook to "sew" it up to functional at least; allowing creative use of skills and tools. I awarded both players with a Hope point (aka Inspiration in 5e).

One thing I like to do is make "random" encounter tables and then never roll on it, instead picking the right encounter for the flow of the story and session and the mood of the table.

Another "DnD video that came just in time for my campaign today" from Dael. This with Runesmith's travel/exploration video has been a huge help planning a pirate ship/hexcrawl/island hopping arc in my campaign.

@MonarchsFactory

3 жыл бұрын

Good luck! Let us know any seafaring tips and tricks you work out as you go

@griffinturner6411

3 жыл бұрын

@@MonarchsFactory Idk if I did anything crazy, I just took the sea exploring section in Ghost of Saltmarsh and made it a hexcrawl. The anthropomorphizing landscapes got really good reactions! I guess the funniest thing is since I made a map that is explorable, they're trying to discover every nook and cranny. I have a few "main quests" spread around that they need to flesh out the story, but they are taking every stop they can along they way.

It's cool to see every episode having more and more added to the shelves at the back.

@ericksemones9681

3 жыл бұрын

This is the most excitement I've ever seen over random tables. I love it. Great video overall. I'll be coming back to this one.

"These are my personal breakdowns-" that's usually how my worldbuilding goes too.

I see Sea Shanty TikTok has reached Dael Kingsmill as wel...

@Wimikk

3 жыл бұрын

Sea Shanty Tiktok reached me yesterday and I have never been so tempted to join tiktok

@MonarchsFactory

3 жыл бұрын

Dolly actually has quite a thriving little tiktok community and I am 1000% waiting for her to hop on the sea shanties there

@adaraenthaler6594

3 жыл бұрын

@@MonarchsFactory I actually tried duetting a shanty tiktok the other day and it was the worst thing I've heard myself do since the old singstar playback feature. I'll have to try again when that memory fades.

@MonarchsFactory

3 жыл бұрын

@@adaraenthaler6594 I feel that. The SingStar microphones/playback feature had a role in developing my distaste for both sleepovers and kareoke.

@adaraenthaler6594

3 жыл бұрын

@@MonarchsFactory your resistance to staying at parties past 11pm makes a lot more sense now

i think we should all have cat's attitude from red dwarf. "my clothes look good, my hair looks good. i look good."

Love the idea of seeding character interactions beforehand for players who aren't always at professional level of improv (myself included in that)

I'd embrace my inner theater kid, but he always goes through dramatic death throws, so over the top.

Just remember if you want to make travel interesting you need conflict which becomes resource management against the environment and weather. Plus, you always have to kill someone with dysentery

@MonkeyJedi99

3 жыл бұрын

Yep. Always dysentery.

It's very interesting because I am part of two different parties, one that has been pure travel the entire time while the other is all exploration. This definitely got me thinking.

2:57 The LAST thing I expected going into this was a Del Tora Quest reference.

@ingridplata2411

3 жыл бұрын

Same here, but I was pleased to hear it!

Someone get Dael a small table so she can practice putting books down nicely while on camera.

it's so surreal hearing you shoutout deltora quest in some of these videos, as someone who grew up on those books and hasn't really met anyone else who read them since. Man, that's nostalgic

@ingridplata2411

3 жыл бұрын

They were so good!

Listening to Dael reading the scenic descriptions from My Brother Michael makes me want to listen to a full audiobook read by Dael

Adore what your doing with your channel the blur of writing and gameplay tips that not many channels can pull off as well as you do it. Plus the dnd theory crafting it's just *Chief's kiss*

Another element of great travel description is some feeling of foreshadowing or mood setting. Picture how you want the characters to feel when the travel ends (and becomes exploration e.g.) and weave that into your description. "As days grow shorter and shadows longer, you realize you have left the safety of your homelands. It is a subtle change, but a change nonetheless. Roads become less maintained, with long distances of heavy mud. The fog, that eternal fog, clings to the manes of the horses as they toil to pull the wagons. Proud, long pine trees that filter the light have given way to gnarly, old oaks and beeches, intent on casting gloom and shadow on their mossy surroundings. There are sounds you do not know, sounds of animals that turns your head. The horses grow nervous and it has become a tiring job of driving the wagons. The chill that comes from cold nights and mist-soaked clothing makes that few feel like banter or conversation. On the last days, the dark clouds that have been hanging overhead for a while now, finally deliver on their grisly promise and rain starts pouring down. Miserable and tired, you finally see the faintest orange glow from torches...the first roadside inn in days beckons with a promise of warmth and rest." It immediately sets the tone/mood (I'm feeling miserable but thank gods for this inn) for the players to start from. ('Innkeeper! Throw some extra logs on the fire and bring me some mulled wine. These boots will take a while to dry!')

I'm 23 minutes in, and I'm already realizing I'm going to have to watch this at least 3 times to get all the juicy bits. There's so many good ideas in here.

Just commenting to help the youtube algorithm...

@MonarchsFactory

3 жыл бұрын

You're a good soul

@drekfletch

3 жыл бұрын

I hear that algorithm's like to listen in on conversations.

Travel through a point of interest is "dungeon crawling," travel around a point of interest is "exploration," and travel between points of interest is "downtime." New Dms often struggle with the third. My suggestion is to treat the open road like you would treat the inside of a tavern. Have several interesting characters and details that flesh out the environment, but never spend too long there.

i watch a LOT of dnd advice videos, not all of them have me actually taking notes ... xx

@atrumangelus9733

3 жыл бұрын

I've been DMing for almost 25 years (oof) since I was about 12. She seems to DM a lot like me, and I still find her advice and ideas amazing, and discover new was to look at things I've thought odd. I stole her ideas for how to run ghosts for an upcoming session. :D

@adammoffat6797

3 жыл бұрын

@@atrumangelus9733 Yeah i used the "semi rehearsed" campfire dialogue idea for my last session.... or tried to, one of the participants was a no show! grrr note to self: next time have 3 players do the talkie scene prep! lol

Wow, dropping an Understanding Comics gem of advice in a DnD video; truly in unprecedented times

Scarf confidence and “I’m extremely attractive” what great truths could be shared. Loved the vid, there are things I will definitely steal

Other Pop culture examples: Lost In Space and The Martian for Exploration stuff as well. It's not typically them vs. a concerted enemy or aggressor (though that does happen), it's more them vs. an ineffable force. Gravity. Oxygen. Low food stuffs. Microscopic metal-eating parasites (disease).

Improvisers, Dael, they're called improvisers!

@russellwilkerson2452

3 жыл бұрын

improvisationalist

@MonarchsFactory

3 жыл бұрын

Improvistans

@UnknownVir

3 жыл бұрын

improvista

@VinStJohn

3 жыл бұрын

Improvosts

@drekfletch

3 жыл бұрын

Actors ex tempore . Wait, that doesn't fit the memetic form...

Scarf Confidence feels like it should be a D&D feature. After a minute in your presence while wearing a scarf, you have advantage on all Persuasion and Deception checks, and disadvantage on all Intimidation checks. Because who could be intimidated by that cuteness.

Dael Says walking Song. My Brain: AND I WOULD WALK 500 MILES AND I WOULD WALK 500 MORE!

So much confidence.

DM Tip for travel: Travel descriptions are a GREAT time for Dms to expo dump...I mean world build. In fact here is my tip: DMs DO NOT do a world building exposition dump at the beginning of the campaign. Rather whenever travel tell them the specific names and history as they travel: You travel down Smiths Road, so named because in the War of Epic Awesome King Awesome The Ruler made this road to transport swords from the Great Dwarven blacksmiths in the hills to the battlefront which gave the next town, Battlefront Town, it's name.

The impressionistic map of notecard areas is called a pointcrawl (like in the hexcrawl family) and they slap! Hope you check try that technique out sometime! Great video!!!

RE the clickbait as hook, I've found this works particularly well for character hooks and backstory, ala kessel run

I love the modification to long rest. No hit point recovery and only half of spell slots recovered. It's ::chef's kiss:: magnifique.

I cannot emphasize enough how useful your videos are. Each video can completely change how a game is run _for the better._ I've had to take notes each video because I can't afford to waste a single thing in them! Thank you for producing these videos!

Fun to hear you mention Stellaris! Great little stories in there.

As someone from the wild western states, yes: channeling your inner cowboy is precisely how you look good in a scarf.

10:45 Get flowery, get purple! Me, making notes for my coming DnD game regarding purple flowers that spew sleep inducing pollen: How does she know???

So this is really cool, the idea of the character interactions and progressions during travel, I started a new campaign just a few days ago with some players new to me as a dm and one player new to dnd altogether and I started them with a traveling quest, they started in one town and were given a cart and task to retrieve goods from two other nearby towns for a festival that would be happening in a few days time, so their character who hadn’t known each other got a lot of time to interact and bond during the encounters while I familiarized them with the local region and planted seeds for future quests, they hadnt even returned with the goods by the time we ended the session but they were already excited about returning to some of the locations to look into different people or things they’d seen and interacted with. The travel was a great tool to get them all comfortable with each other and immersed in the world

Petition to have Dael read an audiobook? Those segments were so well read!

Always excited for new content. And this video is so long! And it has SEA SHANTIES!

Deltora Quest was my jam, I saw books 1 and 2 (collection books) at a thrift store and bought them immediately

@MonarchsFactory

3 жыл бұрын

Fundamental childhood fantasy, right there

@reddevved

3 жыл бұрын

I knew about the Deltora Quest 2 books (they're called shadowlands here) but I just learned recently that there is a 3 about dragons

Never thought to make that distinction either. Some good advice here! My solution was just to throw out random encounters in general if I wanted the players to get to a place fast, but to put them in if I had some thematically interesting stuff in mind. Lots of die fudging going on when I just didn't feel like actually doing an encounter on the way to their destination.

speaking of exploration rules and games, Darkest Dungeon is an amazing resource. it has all that Dael mentioned and more

I made travel super important in the beginning of my players campaign. My map takes in-game weeks to traverse by cart with a game mechanic that also creates a sense of danger for long periods of time outside of city walls. Now travel is a decision and stopping anywhere risks the party if they are short on time. Going across the map without of plan can cause several deadly encounters to deal with. Since it was all built in from the start it created a more enjoyable travel experience and had my players asking, "How much time before X".

THOSE TRAVEL DESCRIPTIONS ARE DRIPPING WITH DELICIOUSNESS, WOOO IF I GOT THOSE IN ANY OF MY CAMPAIGNS I WOULD LOSE MY APE BRAIN TO A WAYWARD FANTASY, I'M GONNA GENTRIFY THE MINDS EYE OF MY PLAYERS!

Can confirm, you do look wonderful with the scarf.

I love random encounter tables. I tend to treat all travel as exploration, with the idea being that the world is wild and old and even travelling through relatively civilized areas brings risk and discovery. But I also go through the trouble of making customized encounter tables for each region that evolve as the characters shape the world, eliminate threats, make alliances, etc.

I’m running a west marshes campaign and rations go so out the window once you get the spell create food and water. Or the ranger takes good berry. I would highly recommend gritty realism as you describe.

Yessss!!!! I had no idea how much I needed this video. Thank you! Thank you!

This is completely accidental but the "Articulate" on the top-right-handcorner is like a call to action. I love it.

Loved the debate around separating Travel and Exploration. I truly believe this is something that should be approached more frequently. Great video as always

This video could be subtitled, Dael describing EXACTLY how the "5 things you didn't know about X" videos get me to watch.

I'm addicted to listening to people read stories, thanks for the narration!

This video looks so dang smooth!

I've instilled mechanics and gameflow to capture the specific wonder of the scene in Lord of the Rings (movie) where Aragorn describes the Argonath to the Fellowship. Players get a chance to describe from their PC's perspective things they might come across.

upvoted for the scarf advice, now on to the rest of video.

For a mechanical side of things, there is the journey mechanics from the 5e Middle Earth stuff. It's a great way to handle the travel side of things and making it an adventure in its own right

One of the best D&D videos I’ve watched. Thanks!

Glad you are back!!!!! Thanks for the video

That was incredible, well read, Dael!

This is so much useful information in one video, thank you for the great content as always.

This is a subject I need info on and I’m very excited for this video

Piranesi is an absolutely beautiful book that everyone should read

Dael, this video is the most helpful resource for what my games currently need. I share many of your views on this and had begun to reach some similar conclusions, but you were way ahead of me and have afforded me a chance to piggy-back straight to a language to conceptualise it through, strong goals to strive for, and a couple of actionable to-do:s for churning them into a reality. Thank you very much indeed, Dael!

DM tip for trravel: Have all the characters make an INT, WIS, Perception, Investigation, of their choice. Then as the DM just look at how they did as a group. They better they did as a group the more description AND information about the map you give them. For example if they roll low as a group: You pass some old gloomy woods that seem quiet, and come to a fork in the road, and ahead is a crumbled ruin. If they roll well: You pass The Woods of the Shadow Elves, an old gloomy woods you can tell no human has set foot in for a century and with good reason for those woods are of legendary danger, ahead of you is the fork in the road where the Last Battle of the Old Empire took place, the lumpy little hills around you in teh landscape the remains of ancient battlements long covered by centuries of dirt, legends say that each blade of the short stubby grass taht grows here was watered by the blood of those who tell that day, and ahead is the crumbled ruin of the Tower of Agmar the Horrible, now populated by nought by a circling murder of cawing crows.

The only problem with the “gritty “ concept is that people automatically associate hp with physical damage. Hp are an abstract. A dagger is just as deadly to a 20th level Paladin as it is to a 1st level Wizard. The difference, the skill in battle, the knowledge of turning a blade aside at the last minute, the hours spent building the stamina to fight for hours, this is all part of those hit points, this is what must be worn down before that dagger can slip in, and find its deadly mark. This is why regain of hp over a long rest is actually feasible

@tormunnvii3317

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah, I noticed that section recently and as you say, it makes a lot of things in D&D make more sense when viewed that way. Also, that “realism” optional rule would mess with my attempts to create balanced encounters, which can already be hard enough. Each to their own tho.

@TheAchilles26

3 жыл бұрын

Probably because the actual explanation and description of the combat rules and actions in combat directly and explicitly contradicts this interpretation. If your attack role equals or exceeds the target's AC, you have struck them a solid blow. You then roll damage to determine the extent to which they have been injured.

IN my game, sometimes a day's travel takes an hour or two of table time, sometimes a whole week can take half that. It depends on what the characters are doing or looking for, and whether there are pre-planned "random" encounters I've placed.

Another day with the beautiful, wonderful Dael 🥰😍

fab video, narration is a forever skill to hone and this is a great reminder to forever clarify intent.

Delightful, start to finish. I have missed you and your wondrous ramblings so much. Have a good "2020."

Yay! Hi Dael! Always happy to see you!

@MonarchsFactory

3 жыл бұрын

Happy to see you too! 💕

Understanding Comics! Yes, Scott McCloud is absolutely useful in understanding storytelling as a whole.

Great video...way more advice crammed in here than just about travel/exploration.

best part of this video 15:00 where you talk about teasing at things you want to reveal rather than describing them directly and dully.... im a very direct engineer so i needed this reminder 😆

Best dnd vid in a while. And that does include other channels... Love it!

I have also been thinking about this in relation to a system I was designing (that can honestly be "tacked on" to pretty much any pre-existing RPG), specifically the idea that *Travel* =/= *Exploration*. I'm more partial to a system where bookkeeping is kept to a minimum or done so for the sake of drama (I'd rather do an inventory slot system over tracking each pound of weight, and I think most people would). Something I appreciate about Five Torches Deep is their solution for having a middle ground between "player preparedness" & "character preparedness" with the Supply system, however I personally wanted something where the actual journey there had an impact on that. Plus I thought it'd be a great opportunity for the players to make the decision of "how much should we bring with us?" The basic idea is that when you leave to travel towards your intended destination, you'd have to pick how much "Supply" (this is an abstracted resource, similar to FTD) you'd bring along with you from your reserves and put that many tokens in a container, along with a number of "Complication" tokens equal to the dangerous conditions of the path. You then draw a number of tokens equal to the travel time/distance needed to get there, and for each Complication there is an event that occurs which hinders the party in some way and/or costs them some material (no actual negative effect except not getting a Supply, that is punishment enough). However for Supply, you get to add that token to the party pool, representing that the group made good time, overcame harrowing circumstances without expending materials, or discovered something useful along the way. At any time during the actual "dungeon crawl" a player may choose to expend one of those tokens to succeed on a roll they would otherwise fail, demonstrating them having the right tool for the job (they should describe what it is they used in order to do that, obviously). And that is pretty much it! I have some concepts for how to have the recovery of Supply function in order to minimize incentive for dumping all your supply into each expedition and getting them all back immediately upon returning to home or resting. And I have some concepts for making a simple "weather system" that will actually allow for a bit of variance in the difficulty of travel (Complication tokens) and be helpful in making the world feel more dynamic.

Random encounter tables are one of the most underappreciated tools. They should be used in just about all pillars of play, but they need to be used right. The main problem is too many people hear random table and they think "I rolled an 8. Now you guys have to fight these 1d4 goblins to the death. Go!" This is the worst way to go about it. If you don't want to slow down long distance travel with random fights then don't use a table with combat encounters on it. Use tables with odd landscape features, grazing wildlife just coming out of the tree line in the distance, ruined and abandoned settlements, stone circles or rune covered mile markers, their ship is passing by a pod of whales or a tiny deserted island that wasn't on the maps, a lake with a small island in its center that you don't remember being their when you setup camp yesterday. Any kind of landscape features or wildlife that the party might notice if they glance over while passing by in their cart or ship or whatever. If they want to stop and roll to investigate maybe there's nothing there to find. Or maybe they find a bag of gems in a dead drop under some large boulders. Maybe they find a piece of a magic item they are slowly collecting parts of. For actual exploration use a table with the kinds of things the party should come across while searching an area for whatever their quest giver sent them to find in that area. Add a few scout patrols to the table, but keep half the table for noncombat clues and trails they can follow to find the next part of the plot line. While exploring a large enough dungeon or enemy camp/lair that's when the random encounter table should be almost all combat. But even then add in a potentially noncombat encounter to spice things up. Maybe a rival faction is hunting the same enemy as the party and they're willing to not fight the players so long as they don't get in the way. Maybe the orcs, lizardfolk, or goblins are fed up and looking for new bosses to help get rid of the old boss that enslaved them or eats one of them every few days.

@edge2k2

3 жыл бұрын

Used correctly, there is no such thing as a purely 'random encounters". The DM should take the time to prepare specific encounters worth the players time (fun, rewarding, helps highlight the environment, etc). To the players you can have a randomness to when they happen, but purely random does not work as great as there is this big gap in play while you hash out the specifics.

@CitanulsPumpkin

3 жыл бұрын

@@edge2k2 The entries on random tables are the creatures, objects, minor events, and locations that exist in the game world. The odds of your players running into them are determined by die rolls the same way hits and misses are determined by die rolls. Random encounters only feel "random" when the DM uses the wrong table for the situation, has no idea what's on the tables before hand, or explains the entry on the table in the most unimaginative way possible. Like everything else, random tables are a tool that can be used well or used poorly. They are not the equivalent of throwing the monster manual up in the air and then looking at the pages left open when it lands to determine the final boss fight in the dungeon. And if the DM is using them that way they're doing it wrong.

Oh hi! one of those new viewers on old videos. friend recommended and the backlog of interesting content is so nice to have!

Great video, thank you for sharing! Also, Understanding Comics never ceases to amaze in all of the aspects of communication & storytelling it addresses that apply to media other than comics.

Piranesi is SO good

Deltora quest unLOCKED some memories in my brain

Plenty of useful ideas to -steal- borrow... Excellent video. :)

THIS VIDEO IS AMAZING! ESPECIALLY THE RANDOM ENCOUNTER PART!

I love this video so much, the theory here is ace

You said AoE more than once. Didn't think i could like your videos more, and yet here we are... Good stuff!

Referencing Scott McCloud in a D&D video... that I was not expecting and I love it. Going back to read those books RIGHT NOW. Great video, thanks!

Amazing channel, amazing person. Instant Subscribe. Also, one thing I often do for travel is have my players take it in turns to improv describe the journey and events and interactions as they go along. I have found this really enhances what would normally be a bland few sentences of general description in most campaigns.

I enjoy all the videos on this channel, but I got a _lot_ more out of this particular video than I expected tyvm

Seeding inter-party role-play ahead of time is maybe the biggest revelation I've ever had. I heard many people talk about how they encourage RP every time their players rest around the campfire and that sounds great too, but it feels more like you're imposing it and players don't get to say no to it. Hearing your friend sing and realizing most of what I listen to on Spotify could be considered travel songs (UK/northern Europe folk music) is another big revelation, though I don't still know how to take it.

This was very illuminating. The distinction between travel and exploration is brilliant.

My campaign just opened up and they are doing their first long travel. This was definitely helpful and good timing.